Ukraine has restarted a military offensive in the eastern part of the country after two brutally beaten bodies were discovered in the Donetsk region — one is thought to be a local politician.

Acting Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov said the politician’s name is Vladimir Rybak, reports the BBC.

“The terrorists who effectively took the whole Donetsk region hostage have now gone too far,” the BBC reported Turchynov saying.

Two “brutally tortured individuals” have been found near Sloviansk, in the Donetsk region where pro-Russian separatists have been strategically taking over key government buildings, Turchynov said in a statement reported by the Kyiv Post.

“We do not recognize Russia’s actions in the Crimea. Here in Ukraine, people know that it is about something much more fundamental. It isn’t about geopolitics, it is about unity, it is about independence and at its most basic level it is about restoring respect and dignity,” Biden said.

Biden, once again, demanded Russia respect international law, specifically the April 17 agreement to ease tensions reached in Geneva between Ukraine, Russia, the U.S. and the European Union.

Many of the pro-Russian militants operating in the Donetsk region are thought to be backed by the Russian government. However, Russian officials have denied this and the militants say they are not bound by the Geneva agreement.

On a Ukrainian government website, Turchynov said in a statement: “I demand from security task forces to resume and carry fruitful counterterrorism actions meant for protection of Ukrainian citizens, who live in the east of Ukraine, against the terrorists.”

Calling it a terrorist move, Turchynov said they had “overstepped the limits” by torturing and killing patriots of Ukraine.

“They dared to toss a challenge not just to our country, but to the whole world as well, when they demonstratively outraged upon the decisions, which have been adopted in Geneva. These crimes are committed under the complete favour and with the connivance of the Russian Federation,” he said.

Meanwhile, in Moscow, the highest ranking Canadian diplomat has been asked to leave the country in 14 days, said the Russian news service Itar-Tass.

Canadian officials were told Tuesday the embassy’s First Secretary Margarita Atanasov would be expelled from Russia in the next two weeks, reported Itar-Tass.

The move is seen as a retaliatory gesture after the Canadian government asked a military attaché to leave Ottawa earlier this month, for unknown reasons.

With files from Associated Press

U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden was in Kyev Tuesday, where he pledged Washington's support for Ukraine as a Cold War-style confrontation over the former Soviet republic ratchets up.

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